College of the Redwoods students excel in startup business competition
College of the Redwoods students are progressing to the third round of startup competition events that are focused on business creation ideas. The group won the first two competitions at Humboldt State University, and will have the opportunity to compete again in Sacramento on April 21.
Five CR students, including Joe Snipes, Benjamin Neff, Tomas Jevons, Alex Orozco, Aaron Spurgeon and HSU student Daniel Rodriquez, have pitched the idea of using a drone/UAV to collect land use data via LiDAR, Photometry, thermal and visual sensors/cameras to produce data that is cheaper, more frequent, and less risky than current methods. CR Forestry instructor Mickey Jarvi was the main faculty mentor for this group, along with business coach Danny Kelley.
The students’ main target market is the timber industry, and they hope their data collecting method will help foresters be able to manage their land in the most effective ways to produce lumber while maintaining the forest for future use. They also wanted to target utility companies who could use their data to monitor power lines, water lines, gas lines, etc. In the future, the students want to be able to supply environment/wildlife scientists with data that is more accurate and frequent than ever before, so scientists can create better management strategies.
On March 3, HSU hosted Startup Weekend, an event powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, where numerous students came and gave a 60 second pitch of their business idea in front of a group of students and event coordinators. Of all the pitches, 8 were chosen to continue their idea and build a business in 2 days then present a 5-minute pitch in front of a group of judges who then pick what they believe is the best business idea.
After their 2 days of researching and building their business model, they gave their pitch March 5 and took first place over the other 7 competitors. For coming in first place they were awarded prizes that will help them build their company by connecting them with free consultations from a variety of investors and other entrepreneurs. On March 8 the group also won in a competition called Future Four & More Business Concept Competition at HSU.
CR’s team will head to Sacramento State to represent CR/HSU on April 21 at the Sacramento State campus. At Sacramento State, the CR/HSU winners will compete against the top two finalists from Chico State, Sacramento State, Fort Hayes State (Kansas), St. John’s University (NYC), Santa Rosa JC, and Butte CC. Last year total prizes were valued at $20,000.
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Photo: (L-R) CR Forestry faculty Mickey Jarvi, Alex Orozco, Joe Snipes, Benjamin Neff.